3 takeaways from the Mariners’ royal beatdown of Kansas City

The Mariners remain the hottest team in baseball with a 13-5 victory over the Kansas City Royals, improving to a 10-2 record on the season. Here are our takeaways.

THE BULLPEN WAS RESILIENT

When the Mariners sold practically all their veterans elsewhere this offseason, they didn’t exactly re-stock with the best alternatives. For as insane as the offense has been, the bullpen has been almost as bad. The team’s only two losses so far this season were late-game bullpen chokes and in one of the Boston wins, scoring 10 runs was barely enough.

The usual bullpen headaches seemed inevitable tonight. Felix Hernandez had to exit after the first inning with “virus-like symptoms,” and Chasen Bradford didn’t exactly relieve the birthday boy with his two runs allowed and six full innings left of the ‘pen to go. But for a bullpen that could easily turn a six-run lead into a save situation, they came through tonight. Roenis Elias and friends held the Royals to one run the rest of the game, with their fifth and final run coming in garbage time. If this bullpen can pitch the way they did tonight moving forward, it will be critical the Mariners’ success in holding on to first place in the AL West.

DON’T WAVE BYE TO BRUCE AND ENCARNACION JUST YET

For crying out loud, the 2019 Mariners share a home run category with the 1932 Yankees! And speaking of Bronx Bombers (minus the Bronx), Jay Bruce and Edwin Encarnacion are hammering baseballs everywhere. Tonight’s win gives them 10 combined home runs to start the season. Even though Bruce mainly strikes out when not homering and Encarnacion’s season average spiraled down as an Indian, these guys are slugging assets. If this continues, you may want to pump the brakes on all the buzz about these two being rental pickups and gone by midsummer.

SCORING RUNS IN BUNCHES

It’s not just that the Mariners are scoring runs left and right. It’s that they are doing it in bunches. We’re so used to Mariners teams scoring two runs early in the game and then the lights going out for the remainder. But these hitters won’t go away. They score runs in bunches and do what their fans aren’t used to; shelling opposing pitchers.

Don’t forget, they scored in bunches for the second game in a row. After enjoying their White Sox fun yesterday with a six-run third, they went on to squash the Royals with an eight-run sixth. Right when you think they’ve scored enough runs, they keep coming. And old Mariners teams struggled to make bad bullpens pay. Tonight’s offense achieved a personal win against a mediocre Kansas City bullpen. The Royals’ bullpen has an ERA north of 8.00 early in the season. The Mariners’ offense scored exactly that amount of runs in the sixth. This team looks scary.

The Mariners pick things up again tomorrow at 5:10 PM PT. Marco Gonzales will get his fourth nod of the season, squaring off against Jakob Junis (1-0, 4.63 ERA).